Employing Ground Source Heat Pumps for Energy
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010Ground source heat pumps give a fairly affordable and environmentally friendly approach to use spare heat from the ground for heating and cooling both housing and commercial buildings. Starting set-up expenses can be quite a bit higher than regular air-source systems, but geothermal heat pumps deliver greatly lessen ownership costs over the long run. Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) are units that work with the earth?s temperature to supply heating, cooling and hot water for commercial companies and residential buildings. The systems are developed to take advantage of the fact that temperatures are at a near constant level of amongst 7 C and 21 C just a couple of feet below the ground, irrespective of geographic location or surface air temperatures. Through winter, the units essentially extract heat from the ground and move it to a commercial building or house, while in summer the systems extract heat from inside buildings and transfer it to the ground. Ground source heat pumps are electrically driven and are sometimes referred to as geothermal heat pumps, or geo-exchange pumps, or merely as earth-coupled heat pumps. A full-fledged GSHP system is composed of a heat pump, a ground loop system for taking in heat from the ground or rejecting it back to the earth, and air ducts or radiant floor systems for delivering the hot or cold air. The ground loop system generally is composed of many loops of plastic tubing loaded with antifreeze liquid or water, hidden underground in horizontal or vertical way. Through winter, the liquid in the loops gathers heat from the earth and forces it to the heat pump where a compressor elevates the temperature even more before circulating it throughout the building. The flow of the liquid inside the loops is reversed through summer. This results in the warmer air being taken out from the building and transferred to the earth while cooler liquid is distributed back to the heat pump and then throughout the building. An open loop system works in pretty much the same way, but in this instance the liquid in the loops is usually ejected into the ground. Ground source heat pumps have been utilised since the 1940s and are thought to be a more eco-friendly and cost-efficient substitute to conventional air-transfer based heating and cooling systems. Tests have revealed that GSHP systems have heating efficiencies up to 70% higher than traditional systems and cooling efficiencies of nearly 40% more than air-conditioners. The initial cost of setting up a geothermal heat pump can be quite difficult compared to traditional heating and cooling systems. Nonetheless, over the long-term the pumps are less expensive to own and to maintain. They also can deliver up to 50% savings on energy usage. In some instances, a geothermal heat pump is fitted along with an air-source heat pump in order to cut down initial installation costs. Find out more details about Ground Source Heat Pumps